Sunday, October 14, 2012

Joe Paterno is not really sacred. Penn State is not Harvard. Happy Valley is not Eden.

They are a myth. Paterno and the university, assisted by worshiping media involved, creating them, spread them, and benefited from them for decades.

Some believe them. But some, especially the coaches and schools who struggle to provide a comfortable contrast to the image of Penn State pristine, denounced what they see as unwarranted, unparalleled arrogance.

Squeaky-clean a brand of Penn State. And until last week that survive, no matter the evidence to the contrary - arrests, fights, DUIs.

Football coach now-ousted ride on his soapbox so often to praise the virtues of Penn State or college athletics lament sin 'that could be renamed the University Creamery's most famous ice cream flavors Paterno preachy.

"Penn State," said ESPN analyst Beano Cook a few years ago, "giving the impression that children who walked out of chemistry class and say, 'We only have 16 credits this fall, let's play football' I was only hatred holy people. than-thou, self-serving statements. Miami I'm not angry because they do not try to represent themselves as Penn State does. Penn State is no different that Miami, Michigan, Texas. "

Now, in the midst of child abuse sex scandal that has brought down Paterno and several university administrators, many seem arrogant on the state of Penn State.

Ex-Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, who long struggled Paterno to lead all-time in Division I victories, said Nittany Lions coach was fired was "negligent" in not reporting allegations of abuse by former assistant Jerry Sandusky to police.

Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, he was the target of Paterno's famous sermon, suggesting Paterno and the entire staff must know about the behavior of Sandusky's alleged predatory.

Sports-talk radio shows, blogs and internet chat rooms have been buzzing - a reaction which seems to consist of equal parts excited and revenge - the exposure of what is widely regarded as hypocrisy Penn State.

"I always hated Joe Paterno and Penn State holier than thou false," wrote Steve Hsu, a physics professor at the University of Oregon, in his blog.

In Cleveland sports site, fans Ohio State - Penn State opponent Saturday - Buckeyes fan 'wrote: "I always look at the Penn State program as holier than thou without good reason, especially given the student-athletes for their arrest record for the football program between 2002 and of 2008. "

Perhaps the ventilation has been the most violent in Florida, where Miami, Florida and Florida State are presented as evil counterpoints to Penn State white hatters.

"My sister lives there and she said people are calling for radio talk shows had a field day with Penn State," said Allen Cook, a barber in West Chester.

Down there, columnist and host and sports-radio callers have been quick to note the hypocrisy.

"Now Paterno is worse than [Jackie] Sherrill. He led the scandal, the most vile disgusting, vile in the history of college athletics," wrote Mike Bianchi, a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel.

Sherrill name has come up often since news of the scandal broke more than a week ago. This is a reference to Paterno's comments were made in a session off-the-record with reporters in 1979.

Asked at the time if he had any plans to enter politics, Paterno said:

"I'm not going to give up college football to the Jackie Sherrills and Barry Switzers of the world," he said, referring to coach at Pitt and then the problem hit Oklahoma, respectively.

The statement it makes its way into print and Paterno apologized to Switzer open though, as far as anyone knows, no Sherrill.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once observed: "Show me a hero and I will write a tragedy". Now Paterno has been dismissed while ensnared in the scandal, as Sherrill and Switzer's.

It is a cruel irony that the media did not miss. In a biting story titled "Penn State Coach Bobby Bowden Registration, Barry Switzer, Other Coaches Who Have Fall From Grace, author Dan Treadway makes connewction to Sherrill and Switzer.

"Of course, Joe Paterno coached after they leave the college game," Dan Treadway wrote on the Huffington Post last week. "Preaching the` Penn State Way, 'Sherrill Paterno outlasted by Switzer eight years and by more than two decades. But, suddenly, Paterno now finds himself having unceremonious dismissal is generally reserved for the kind of coach rebels that he has long sought to differentiate itself from . "

Paterno, himself, understands that he may have placed her high horse too easy, but he could never resist. He did so, he said, only because he was obliged to make the players, teams and games better.

"I do not want to put myself as a do-gooder," he said in 1981, "but I do."

However, many critics, including his late brother, George, wincing every time Paterno transformed into Pope Saleh (cq).

"If you do not wear the collar back," said George Paterno, "it is difficult to go with piety."
source: http://www.philly.com

Cook received an unusual nickname at age seven from neighbors in Pittsburgh, as a reference to the recent move from Boston (nicknamed Beantown).
Cook graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1954, then served two years in the U.S. Army. She is a public relations exercise for the University of Pittsburgh from 1956 through March 1966, working for the Miami Dolphins for a season, served as a publicist for both ABC and CBS in New York, and spent time as a vice president of the Pittsburgh Civic Arena when it was run by Edward DeBartolo, Sr. of them run errands, Cook volunteered with VISTA in Florida in 1976. For a brief period in the late 1980s, Cook did comment on WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh.